Making Macs - Diary Entry 1

I've recently decided that I WILL master the art of the dreaded macaron. 

I had tried these once before a couple years back now with a recipe out of a Women's Weekly recipe book. That experience was a fail. Though looking back, I don't think I was giving the bake the attention required and didn't have an understanding of the basics of baking. I'm feeling more confident these days. 

It's not the filling I am too worried about (even though that is where all the flavour lies). It's the beautiful, precious, little shell that is the macaron that scares me. 

So, the day I decided this will soon become my new hobby, I head to the shops full of excitement and purchase myself some new cook books (one for making cake pops, that's where I'm headed next...watch this space). Seeing as the Zumbaron is slowly taking over what seems  the world, I figure Zumbo's Zumbaron cook book is a good place to start.

I get home and eagerly go through the recipes. His book has three different macaron shell recipes; Italian ("easiest"), ("medium difficulty") and the French ("hardest"). His filling recipes are a bit too out there for me, and like I said, at the moment, I'm just focusing on the shell. So I stick to a basic chocolate filling. 

Knowing that I am a beginner, I write myself a shopping list for ingredients to make the Italian Macaron and head back to the shops. 

Arriving home armed with all my supplies, I kick everyone out of the kitchen except for my sister, I employ her as my helper for the evening, and get to work. 

OK, so this recipe is a lot more complicated once I start and I realise I really don't have the right tools. You need to measure this to the exact, have another thing at the right temperature (I don't have a thermometer and I wasn't about to go putting my finger in a boiling pot to guesstimate). That being said, all things seem to look OK so far. My nephew seemed to think so too (my second helper for the night, love him!). 

So all was going well, until I missed that the hot liquid needed to be folded with the dry ingredients at a certain temperature. Not realising this until much later on, I spoon the THICK mixture into a piping bag. This mixture was so thick, that it actually split my piping bags. I knew this was completely the wrong consistency but I had come too far. I ended up spooning the mixture onto my tray. 

Leaving it until it had formed some kind of 'skin' on top, I put them in the oven. After the usual required time, they aren't cooked so I crank up the heat and leave them in there a bit longer. By this stage, I'm a little (very) disheartened and start to give up. I take them out of the oven and set them aside to cool.

Looking at them, I know it's a fail... sad face! While they're cooling I put some cream and chopped up chocolate on the stove to melt and combine. Normally, you need to wait for this to cool before you pipe it but what the hell? The macs are a failure! While it's hot, I spoon some on each shell and sandwich them together. 

End Result:

Ahh well.. tomorrow is a new day. 

Next day I wake up and go through Zumbo's recipes again. I know he says the French mac recipe is the hardest but it is by FAR the simplest. Today I will attempt the French Macaron. 

I decide to go really back to basics. I head to the shops and buy one of Zumbo's Zumbaro packet mixes just for the filling. I'm still trying to perfect the shell. 

After I get home, I open the box and it comes with a stencil which I find really handy for the piping and also a piping back, score (seeing as mine all burst the night before)! 

I kick everyone out of the kitchen again and get to work. 

I'm finding almond meal is SO thick. The night before I was trying to sift it out, OMG NEVER AGAIN! Today I get out the food processor and work it through there, MUCH quicker and easier! 

Then it's just whipping your egg whites to stiff peaks, but wait, not too stiff, and folding it all together without over mixing. 

MUCH simpler recipe. These ones turn out to be a much nicer consistency, they are NOTHING like the night before. I can pipe these easily and using the stencil I got in the Zumbo box, I manage to keep them all a uniform size. 

I set them aside to form their skin and after 15 minutes it looks like this has happened. I pop them in the oven with high hopes and wait. 

These ones don't need too long in the oven, after about 15 min I take them out and set aside to completely cool down. I am SO excited at this point, they look great!.

I used the passionfruit filling out of the Zumbaron box and pipe it on the shells. Next time I do this, I think I definitely need to pipe a bit more on. Too much macaron, not enough filling. 

End result:

I don't think I worked my eggs whites until they were quite stiff enough, will watch out for this next time and I can't wait to start working on filling flavours. 

I've just purchased a pack of gel food colour as well so I can get those really vibrant colours to go with the flavours.

(This was a little while ago now, so I don't have many pics. Will definitely start taking some more with each of my future attempts!)